Might of the Dragon

by Jessica Drake

  “We need to head back to the capital,” I told Lessie. We’d already passed Lange and had moved on since we hadn’t sensed the relic there. Normally, if I’d still been part of the army, I would have flown straight back to high command to warn them of the flanking attack so that they would not be completely taken by surprise. But as things stood right now, would they even believe me? And what could we do, with the timing and distance involved? From what I was able to glean, the bulk of the Elantian troops were massed along the mountainous western border, far to the south of here. I didn’t know if we’d be able to get there in time to make a difference—Lessie was much stronger than she’d been when she’d flown for the first time, but she was still young and tired easily, and we’d already done quite a bit of flying today.

  No, the only thing we could do now was go to Lange and hope the people of Dardil were prepared to defend their neutrality against the might of a Zallabarian army.

  13

  Pushing hard, Lessie and I made it back to Lange well ahead of the enemy. The first of the cavalry would be hitting the town in the next two hours, so I had Lessie drop me atop a rampart. I’d overheard a staff member at the inn informing tourists that this rampart had been part of a large city wall that had formed the entire perimeter of the town—a wall that would have served Dardil quite well if the citizens, in their complacency, hadn’t decided to tear it down.

  The rampart reminded me of Zuar City’s own walls. While they still stood, they hadn’t been properly manned or maintained in centuries. If Zallabar made it through—and they would—they would head straight for my hometown. Still, perhaps Zuar City could be saved, or at least the damages could be minimized if the residents had sufficient warning.

  Swinging down from the ramparts, I headed into Lange, striking out for the nearest guardhouse. On my way in, I passed by the inn where Salcombe and I had stayed, and I hesitated. Salcombe wasn’t there anymore, but it was likely he’d stopped by to collect his belongings on his way out. Perhaps he’d left some clue as to where he’d gone. Surely I could take a minute to find out; after all, if it turned out he hadn’t gone to Zallabar, I could still pursue him.

  Ignoring a stab of guilt, I pushed through the doors and headed to the front desk. To my surprise, the owner, a tall man in a suit with silver-blond hair and a thin face, was manning the reception.

  “Mrs. Trentiano?” he asked, his pale eyes widening as he recognized me. “What—where—"

  I hid a wince as he sputtered. No doubt he recognized me by my hair, and the sight of me wearing an Elantian military uniform threw him for a loop. “Yes, Mr. Desmet, it’s me, but my name isn’t really Trentiano,” I said with an apologetic smile. “The man who was posing as my husband was actually my captor. I’ve managed to escape and have returned, hoping he left some of my belongings here.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t help you with that,” the owner said gruffly. “Mr. Trentiano checked out early this morning. I was surprised to see him here without you or that bodyguard of his, but I’m a discreet fellow and do not ask too many questions of my patrons.” His cheeks colored as he likely realized he was being the opposite of discreet by telling me. “How do I know you are being truthful about your relationship to Mr. Trentiano?”

  I gestured to my uniform. “I wasn’t lying when I said that I am an Elantian soldier,” I said, recalling that he’d been in the lobby when the city guard had descended on me and Jallis. “Trentiano is wanted for crimes in his home country.”

  The man’s face cleared. “That explains why the city guard came looking for him,” he said. “His carriage left toward the city harbor. No doubt he has taken berth on some vessel flying under a neutral flag, which would be safest in these troubled times.” His brow furrowed. “It isn’t easy being sandwiched between two countries at war, you know. I wonder how long the warring parties will continue to respect our neutrality.”

  “Not long at all, I’m afraid,” I said, bringing my attention back to the immediate threat. I could go down to the docks and question the workers about where Salcombe had headed, but I doubted I would get much salient information, and we were running out of time. “On my way back to the city, I passed a large army heading here from the Zallabarian border. They should be arriving here in the next hour or two, so I’d suggest you secure your family while there is still time.”

  The man’s face blanched. “An army?” he asked, gripping the edges of the counter. “How can you be sure?”

  “I saw them with my own eyes,” I insisted, refusing to tell him the truth—that I’d flown directly over them. “Fifty thousand strong, with armored horseless vehicles and at least a thousand of their new cannons. You can believe me or not—either way you’ll be seeing them for yourself soon enough.”

  “Blast,” he swore. He pulled on a bell rope hanging near the counter, then hurried out from behind it. “I must alert the city council at once.”

  I grabbed his arm. “Does the city have a contingency plan in place?”

  “Of course,” he said, somewhat impatiently. “I am part of the council and a few of us have considered the possibility that Zallabar might eventually go through us to get to Elantia. We hoped that this was just paranoia, but it seems that our unfortunate prediction has come to pass after all.” He scowled at me, as if this whole situation were my fault, but then his face cleared. “Thank you for the timely warning,” he said, shaking off my grip. “I must attend to my city now.”

  The rush of footsteps caught my attention, and several staff members poured into the lobby, bleary eyed and still in sleep attire. Desmet quickly briefed them of the situation, then sent them off to help warn his colleagues and get the wheels in motion. While the staff rushed about, I darted upstairs and search the rooms Salcombe had rented. I was able to get into them easily enough with my lockpick, but to my disappointment he’d left nothing behind, not even the extensive wardrobe he’d purchased for me. What did he think he was going to do with all those dresses and jewels? Try to sell them back to recoup some of his investment? Or was he keeping them in the hopes he could recapture me?

  More likely he didn’t want to leave any traces behind, I thought, shaking my head as I hurried down the stairs. With the way things had ended between us, I doubted Salcombe intended to take me alive. If the two of us met again, there would be no cooperation. It was kill or be killed now. In fact, Salcombe might already assume I was dead—if the healer hadn’t fixed me, I would have died from that head wound by now.

  The thought of having to drive my dragon blade into Salcombe’s heart chilled me to the bone, but the sound of a loud bell gong distracted me. I rushed outside and stopped short at the sight of people rushing around in the dead of night, many of them half-dressed or still wearing nightclothes. Carts and horses were being harnessed, wailing children dragged out of their homes by harried mothers, and nearly every man carried a weapon of some kind. In the distance, a man tugged mightily on a large bell perched at the top of a tower, waking the citizens. City guards directed the flow of traffic, but it was still mayhem, and I immediately climbed to the roofs to avoid being trampled as I headed for the docks.

  The marina also swarmed with activity, but since the city was just being roused, it hadn’t turned into a madhouse yet. I swung down from the top of a building that sold fishing supplies and hurried over to one of the guards. He clenched his sword at the sight of me in my military uniform, and I held up my hands, stopping at a safe distance.

  “I’m not here to cause any harm,” I said, staying in the light so he could see I had no weapons in my hands. “I’m looking for an Elantian fugitive who may have come through here this morning. Have you seen him?” I gave him Salcombe’s description. “He would be traveling alone, but with enough luggage for three or four people.”

  The man frowned thoughtfully. “I did notice a man like that—he was here quite early. I remember him because my captain came here asking after him.” His expression darkened. “I’m not surprised to hear he’s a fugit
ive—apparently he terrorized a family last night trying to burgle them, and killed one of his own men and left him to die on their property.”

  They’d found Trolbos, I thought, and a vicious sense of satisfaction swept through me as I remembered he was dead. “Do you have any idea where he’s headed now?”

  The guard shrugged. “He boarded a ferry headed east that stops at several islands in the northern sea—” he said, then was cut off by the sound of cannon fire, disturbingly close. He drew his sword, and I instinctively grabbed for my dragon blade as fear gripped my throat. Was the army already here? Who were they shooting at? The thought of one of those shrapnel bombs shredding Lessie’s wings made my skin grow clammy, and I bolted from the docks, ignoring the shouted questions of the guard behind me.

  “Lessie!” I cried, reaching for her through the bond. She didn’t seem to be in any pain, though I could feel both excitement and fear quickening her blood. “Where are you?”

  “Coming your way now,” she said as I burst onto a street. “Get to a roof!”

  I scrambled up the first building I could find, then jumped straight onto Lessie’s back as she swooped in low. Cries of alarm and terror floated up from the street as the Dardilians spotted her, but we ignored them as we shot skyward, Lessie pumping her wings to gain altitude as fast as she could. As we rose, I spotted the first columns of the approaching army, already mowing down the few guards standing in their way. A few cannons swiveled in their direction, and light flashed as they were set off.

  “Higher!” I yelled, though I knew Lessie was flying as fast as she could manage. Two of the bombs flew low, but one of them exploded right beneath us. Lessie roared as one of the shrapnel bits nicked her wing. Luckily, we cleared the rest of it. Trembling with shock at the near miss, we swerved west, away from the approaching army and back to the Traggaran channel and our old camp.

  The Elantian army may have tried to imprison us, but there was no time to dwell on bad blood now. We needed to warn our fellow dragon riders of the approaching cannons before it was too late.

  14

  Lessie and I barely made it over the Elantian border before she started to flag, exhausted after days of long, arduous flights. We pushed as long as we could, making it back to the coastline before she finally landed in a near collapse, her entire body trembling from exhaustion.

  “It’s all right,” I soothed, stroking her wings as she lay down in the sand. We were still miles and miles from the camp, completely exposed on the beach with no cover in sight. “We’ll rest for an hour and then move somewhere that’s better protected so you can fully recover.”

  “We don’t have time for that,” Lessie said, her voice weary. “The Zallabarians will only need a fraction of that force to mow through the city. The rest of them will keep moving, and those armies are fresh and rested. If we stop for too long, we will be too late.”

  I gritted my teeth in frustration. The bone-deep weariness I sensed in Lessie alarmed me—how long could she keep this up before she injured herself? Now that those cannons were in play, Lessie would have to be at her best in order to avoid getting her wings torn apart by shrapnel. But that was even more of an impetus to head south—the last thing we needed was for the Zallabarian army to run into us. They would be only too happy to cut both of us to pieces.

  Lessie rested on the ground for a solid hour, then flew low over the water and caught several large fish. She wolfed them down with relish, then brought back a sea bass for me, which I devoured after she charred it. The food seemed to invigorate her somewhat, and despite my misgivings, we were soon flying again.

  On our way to the camp, we stopped at every town and village, partially to give Lessie short breaks, and partially to warn the guards of the impending attack. I answered questions about the approaching army while deflecting the ones about myself and how I’d come by the information, hoping they would look to my dragon for reassurance that I was a rider and knew what I was talking about. Luckily, the guards didn’t seem overly suspicious of me, and my warnings deflected any undue interest.

  Finally, after several hours of stop-and-go flight, we reached the camp. Lessie and I circled it from a safe distance, trying to decide what to do. As expected, the camp was almost completely empty, not a single dragon around. Lessie couldn’t even sense any in the stables, which meant those riders were likely out on patrol. That boded well for us, as it meant there was no one strong enough to restrain Lessie when we landed.

  But before I could give Lessie the order to descend, a jolt of excitement barreled through the bond. “Look, Zara!” she cried, and I peered through the clouds to see the shapes of two young dragons flying toward us. “It’s Rhia and Ykos!”

  “Do you know who she is with?” I asked, a thrill ripping through the grimness that had settled in my mind.

  “I don’t recognize the dragon, but I imagine he is from the other border camp,” Lessie said.

  Lessie put on a burst of speed, and we intercepted the two dragons, who looked like they were approaching the camp as well. “Zara!” Rhia cried out, her eyes widening in mingled delight and relief. She wore full armor, her chestnut hair pulled back into a knot, though several strands had wormed their way free. There was a flush in her apple cheeks, and she flashed sparkling white teeth as she grinned. “You’re alive!”

  “This your treasure hunter friend?” the other dragon rider asked. He was older, in his early forties, with black-brown hair and a swarthy complexion. He scanned me curiously, and I was relieved to see no censure in his dark eyes. Maybe he hadn’t heard about my court-martial.

  “Treasure hunter and dragon rider,” Rhia corrected him primly. “Why are you here, Zara? I thought you’d be heading for the other camp!”

  The three of us landed so we could have a short discussion a safe distance from the camp. Rhia and I dismounted and ran to each other, and I threw my arms around her in a fierce hug. “I was so worried I wouldn’t see you again when I heard you’d been stranded in Traggar,” Rhia said into my ear, her voice choked with emotion. “They said you were a traitor, but I knew that couldn’t be true and that something terrible must have happened. Please, tell me what’s going on.”

  Sitting in the grass, with our dragons forming a protective circle, I told Rhia and her partner everything. As it turned out, the two of them had been sent here from the frontline in exchange for the dragon riders that had been moved farther south, including Jallis—it was clear that they were being sidelined, sent away from the worst fighting to protect their younger dragons. The irony did not escape me that if Lessie and I hadn’t been branded as traitors, we likely would have been left behind as well, but due to my background as a thief and a treasure hunter, Roche hadn’t trusted me enough to leave me behind in a sparsely manned camp that would be easier to escape from.

  By the time I finished bringing Rhia up to speed on everything up to my re-capture by the Elantian army, she was shaking her head, incensed. “I can’t stand officers like Roche,” she said, her eyes flashing. “Just because she’s been treated poorly in the past doesn’t mean she should be taking it out on every dragon rider. In fact, I would think she would sympathize with you more, since you grew up as a ground-dweller!”

  I shook my head. “The fact that I went from ground-dweller to dragon rider would only make her hate me more, since I’ve managed to accomplish something she never will.”

  “You still haven’t explained what you’re doing here,” Nash, the other rider, said. “If you’re a prisoner, why are you flying around free, and by yourself? I’m assuming you escaped?”

  I nodded. “Lessie broke me free, and the two of us flew to Dardil in search of Salcombe.” I didn’t bother to explain who he was—there wasn’t time. “Rhia, there was an army fifty thousand strong headed straight for Lange, with armored, steam-powered vehicles and nearly a thousand cannons.” My blood went cold as I recalled the sheer enormity of the force. “They were on Lange’s doorstep when I arrived, and have no doubt taken the city
by now. I am certain their plan is to march straight through the country and strike Elantia from the north.”

  Rhia and Nash both went bone-white. “Fifty thousand?” Nash echoed. “If they are already at Lange, it will only take them a few days to get here.”

  Rhia nodded grimly. “It sounds like they intend to bypass the mountains farther south, where they are engaging us with another force.” She scowled. “With so much of our own forces concentrated there, the Zallabarians will be able to go take Zuar City before we can come back to intercept them.” The shock and horror on her and Nash’s faces told me they understood exactly how devastating that would be.

  “We might be able to stop them if we can convince the general to send the bulk of our dragon riders this way,” Nash pointed out.

  “But how long will it take us to get to the general and convince him?” I argued. “And will he even listen? With me being the only witness, it is far more likely that he will throw me back into a cage without bothering to hear my report,” I added bitterly. “Besides, the number of dragons we bring won’t matter in the face of the hundreds of cannons the army is hauling. We will just be putting them in unnecessary danger.”

  “You don’t have to tell me that.” Rhia shuddered. “One of our dragons at the border camp had his left wing shredded by a cannon. He was a bloody mess when he was hauled back to camp, multiple broken bones in his wings and ribcage. The healer was able to repair some of the damage, and his dragon healing will help, but it could be weeks before he fully recovers.”

  Ykos nudged Rhia’s arm, and she twisted around to look at him, the two in silent conversation. “I have been speaking with Ykos and T’augus,” Lessie said, “and the three of us think we would be better served flying ahead to warn Zuar City of the attack.”